The pretty town of Porvenir is situated on the south side of the Strait of Magellan, some 35 km east of Punta Arenas. It was founded in the 1890s during a mini-gold rush when many immigrants arrived not only from Chiloe in neighbouring Chile but from Croatia, both in search of a better life.

Surrounded by wild barren territory Porvenir is the only sizeable settlement on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego and today it serves as a commercial base for the surrounding sheep farms and smaller fisheries. Most people stopover at Porvenir on the way to Rio Grande or Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego.

At the centre of town, all the more colorful for its brightly painted corrugated-iron roof tops, is a lovely plaza dotted with trees and criss-crossed by walkways. Overlooking the plaza is the Iglesia San Francisco de Sales. Here also you'll find the Mueso Provincial Fernando Cordero Rusque which has displays of old photographs of the first gold prospectors to arrive in town.

Some 150 km southeast of Porvenir is Bahia Inutil, so-called by British engineers who deemed it useless as a port. It is surrounded by some spectacular scenery - snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes and virgin forest. Farther on are the small village of Cameron, once a Scottish settlement, and Lago Blanco. And nearby are Estancias Vicuna and Yendegaia which offer some fabulous trout-fishing opportunities.

Cerro Sombrero, a small oil settlement, lies some 125 kilometres to the north of Porvenir.